174 THE PINES 



several species quite similar ; but such a contention cannot 

 be accepted. Mr. George B. Sudworth, United States For- 

 est Service dendrologist, 1 declares that "the reproductive 

 organs of the supposedly different trees are essentially the 

 same. With no characters found in these organs to warrant 

 a distinction of species, the other so-called distinctions de- 

 pended upon are believed to be unworthy of serious con- 

 sideration." 



Its natural range in the United States it is also found 

 in Canada and Alaska reaches from the Canadian line 

 to southern California, and, intermittently where trees grow, 

 from the foot of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains 

 to the Pacific Ocean. Location, climate, soil, all appear to 

 have much to do with its growth, character, and usefulness. 

 It may be found on elevations from sea level to 11,000 

 feet above. On the Pacific Slope it is a low tree, and 

 when in the open forms a dense pyramidal crown, with 

 many-forked branches from the ground up, and is of no 

 great commercial value. When grown in dense stands in 

 its eastern habitat, it has a tall, clean, slender stem, with 

 a rounded, short, and small-branched crown, sometimes at- 

 taining dimensions suitable for saw timber, but is usually 

 from six to twelve inches in diameter. In some regions it 

 grows larger, reaching a height of one hundred feet and 

 a diameter of even three feet. The author has seen many 

 dense groves in the Klamath and Mount Shasta region 

 and but few trees were found over ten inches in diameter, 

 and seldom were any seen as large as that. Where densely 

 grown they are free of large limbs for more than two thirds 

 of their height. 



The wood is soft, variable in grain, fine in dense stands, 

 and moderately coarse when grown in the open. On the 

 Pacific Slope the wood is of a reddish brown, but in the 

 eastern ranges it is a yellowish brown. The eastern wood 

 is the lightest, has less resin, is straighter-grained than the 

 western, and easily worked. It is used for general con- 



1 Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope, page 49. 



